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April 15, 2014

Jackie Robinson Day

A hack USA Today columnist defends Hank Aaron's divisive message of hate on Jackie Robinson day. A few days back, Aaron gained headlines with this thoughtful passage quoted in an earlier colum by the USA Today writer:

We can talk about baseball. Talk about politics. Sure, this country has a black president, but when you look at a black president, President Obama is left with his foot stuck in the mud from all of the Republicans with the way he’s treated. We have moved in the right direction, and there have been improvements, but we still have a long ways to go in the country. The bigger difference is that back then they had hoods. Now they have neckties and starched shirts.

You might think this was a comparison of Obama's opponents to the Klan. If you did think so, you would have plentyofcompany.

But not so fast, per the latest from USA Today:

Never in our 50-minute conversation did Aaron suggest anyone critical of President Obama is racist. Never did he compare the Republican Party to the Klu Klux Klan.

Simply, Aaron stated that we are fooling ourselves if we don't believe that racism exists in our country. It's simply camouflaged now. And yes, he feels sorry for his good friend, President Obama, and the frustrations he endures.

Uh huh.

The balance of the column deplores declining black participation in Major League Baseball without ever noting the baleful influence of the NCAA and their scholarship policies. Here is CC Sabathia, who we did not know was a possible football star:

There may be only so much [Major League] baseball can do. Division I college baseball programs offer only 11.7 scholarships, divided among many more players. For many young athletes from low-income families, choosing baseball over other sports makes little sense.

“Take me, for example,” said the Yankees’ C. C. Sabathia. “If I had a choice, I would have had to go to college to play football, because my mom couldn’t afford to pay whatever the percent was of my baseball scholarship. So if I hadn’t been a first-round pick, I would have gone to college to play football, because I had a full ride.

“All that factors in. How are you going to tell a kid from the hood that I can give you a 15-percent scholarship to go play baseball, or a full ride to go to Florida State for football? What are you going to pick? It’s not even an option.”

LaTroy Hawkins, the veteran reliever for the Mets, said Monday that baseball in the United States had become a game for the rich. Hawkins, who is African-American, said the main problem was that N.C.A.A. Division I baseball programs offered so few scholarships compared with other sports.

Top-level college football programs offer 85 scholarships, all full rides. Division I basketball programs offer 13 full scholarships, also full rides. Division I baseball programs offer 11.7 scholarships, but those are often divided among many players.

“Kids in the inner city play basketball and football, because they give out full scholarships and parents don’t have to worry about anything,” Hawkins said. “In baseball they give out quarter scholarships. That’s what needs to change.

“In the inner city, you need to get a scholarship because most families can’t afford to send a kid to school, especially when you’ve got more than one. You need to get a scholarship, and baseball doesn’t provide that luxury.”

Hawkins also noted that, well before college, specializing in baseball can mean expensive travel teams and a year-round commitment.

“I played 17 games in high school; I’d have gotten burned out with that much baseball,” Hawkins, a native of Gary, Ind., said of today’s schedules. “But that’s what it requires now, because if you don’t, all the kids that don’t live in the inner city and live in the affluent neighborhoods, they’re getting ahead of you. You might be a better athlete than they are, but as far as a skilled player, you can’t keep up with that.”

Dombrowski said the scholarship issue was a common thread in his informal conversations on the racial makeup of the game. Selig’s task force seems to recognize the importance of the problem. Besides Muir, the Stanford athletic director, the task force also includes Roger Cador, the baseball coach at Southern; and Tony Clark, a former major leaguer who was a multiple-sport star in college.

Of course, part of the problem is that the NCAA has embraced their function in protecting college's role as the high-revenue minor league for football and basketball. Baseball had a real minor league system operating before college sports went big-time, so college baseball didn't grow up as a revenue sport needing NCAA monopoly protection.

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Let me just say: "this is what, Democracy looks like!"

Scott Walker has a 16 point lead (56-40) among likely voters in his race for governor, according to a poll from Wisconsin Public Radio/St. Norbert’s. Among registered voters, his lead is essentially the same (55-40). The survey was conducted between March 24 and April 3.

The Detroit deal with the Police and Firemen's pensions seems awfully modest. If I understand it, the pensions got their COLA adjustments going forward, cut in half. Somebody has to take a hit, Detroit can not pay all its bills, so I guess the unsecured trade creditors will get a bigger haircut. The real question is can this deal solve the problem? If not, there is a further filing in the future. In the corporate world that is known as Chap 22 ( 11 + 11)

Since the Boston Marathon Bombing is all over the news, a question on Talk Radio last night was why has the wife of the dead bomber not been charged with anything 1 year later? The point mad was that they all lived in a tiny apartment where it had to have been obvious that the boys were constructing bombs, therefore she had to have at least been aware of it if not an active accomplice, so why 1 year later nothing. The Lawyer cited multiple cases where the spouse in somewhat similar cases had been charged and sitting in the slammer.

why has the wife of the dead bomber not been charged with anything 1 year later?

Friends in high places? Seems to me that's how everyone gets off today.

I don't believe the cries of racism. I might have believed them were I not a tea partier. Since over the last 5 years I have been endlessly called a "racist", I don't believe it. The whole thing is a ruse. There is no racism except against whites.

I hate Titlle IX to except when the ladies win the Soccer World Cup or the Ameircan girls get to the finals in the World and Olympic Ice Hockey tournment or when the Olympics get rid of Ladies softball because the USA is so dominant. But I really hate it when the Ladies dominate Olympic and World track and field, Basketball and Swimming:)

Hawkins and Sabathia simply state facts. Hank Aaron was one of the greatest, a total MLB pro, and now just a miserable old fool. The USA Nightengale guy is a disgrace. TitleIX, I'm agnostic. But it is also fact that countless of young black (and from all races) athletes have lost scholarship opportunities in track/field,wrestling, swimming and baseball because of it. This is part of Glenn Reynolds 'war on boys'.

Most of those who live in da' hood don't know hank arron from a hole in da' wall.

Joe DiMaggio gets a pass because he was once married to Marilyn Monroe.

As to Barry Soetero Obama, "lots o' luck." Similar to Chris Christie's surrounding himself with a bunch of turkeys ... obama "visual" may be Sebaylious leaaving on the note "it seems the last page is missing." ...

What's obama and his team discussing now? An "attack" on the Bundy ranch?

You haven't noticed putin scaring the daylights out of the europeans?

Meanwhile, we'd be in the dark without Drudge.

And, I'm willing to bet that obama won't even have Nixon's final shot ... leaving the white house waving the victory sign with his fingers, in the air.

Then, when Nixon died, someone reported that they obviously had the wrong guy in the box. Because the speeches about the dead guy were so nice.

Plus, right now, racing obama are the tumbling stock prices. I guess the legacy media has to report something?

How does anyone know that over the long haul obama won't come off complaining and sounding like hank aaron? (With less than a stellar batting average.)

Right now aren't there a good number of democratic office holders up for re-election who see their chances of winning diminishing as lots of Americans are getting angrier and angrier?

I can't imagine the white house would be so stupid as to back harry reid. And, let this "dude" Charlie Love who is NOT "BLM" at all ... but "special forces" ... (and, he's the one at the "gate" telling the Bundy's they had to tell everybody to "step back" and turn themselves over to him. (That confrontation has made the rounds.)

And, either way, Reid loses.

The only question I have is why people in Nevada kept re-electing this putz to the senate. (I can almost understand Massachusetts electing the Lurch ... but how did the people of Nevada keep sending to DC this criminal, corrupt, mastermind?

Someday, elections will mean something, again.

As to "athletes" getting scholarships to college ... it doesn't represent the intellectual muscle that once made colleges great.

You know what happened to all those kids? While they were drinking beer debts piled on top of them to last a lifetime.

We've watched lots of things getting broken.

As to "sports" it's wrong when adults get involved in kids play. Back in Joe DiMaggio's day the parents were out working hard. Didn't interfere with talent.

And, ya know what else? Kids back then respected their parents more for it.

JiB-- Equal access? ( my daughter? heh, she's the captain of the Fordham U ultimate frisbee team, not many scholarships there, weed probably) needs definiton. The Clintonistas perverted the definition in 1993 by creating a quota system for scholarships, whether the interest was there amongst girls or not. So, we have the insanity of dozens of NCAA schools with girls crew teams and no boys' track, wrestling and no baseball scholarships, because they need to make the girls scholarship quota to offset revenue football scholarships, and girls crew ain't no revenue sport. It's a complete contrivance to keep football. TitleIX became a game, not a question of access, a long time ago.

I have no doubt that Title IX helped JMAX immensely. If you believe Universities would treat female soccer players the same as they treat male basketball players, you probably believe a lot of things I do not.

Where it has gotten off track is that the same diversity Nazis found in huge supply on campuses, have demanded quotas not equal access to opportunity. Females don't prefer competitive athletics in the same ratio as males, so we see the spectacle of female crew scholarships going to some folks who have never before rowed, even a small dinghy.

Title IX was born out of the crap that was being promulgated in kollidges in the late 60s where they were telling people that the only reason that men were better at basketball than womynz was because they were filling a gender role. Mrs H actually believed that (well, she went to Bowling Green, so it wasn't like a real college education). She wouldn't listen to me when I told her that was completely bogus, but fortunately we had a women anatomy student neighbor who blew that argument to smithereens when she wasn't banging all her classmates while her husband worked in Erie.

Neil Cavuto is right now touting a PHEW poll which shows Millenials showing a marked movement from Democrat to Indy. Even a flatworm turns from pain, so this is not really shocking other than maybe in the caucus room for the Senate Democrats.

JiB-- my wife played D-III softball, I hung with the D-III girl athletes when I played football, when I was the GWU intramural volleyball ref, I proudly wore the 'Vive la Difference' button the woman who ran intramurals gave me. I am a big supporter of femal athletes doing what they want and having equal opportunity. Typical though, Title IX passed with the best of intentions, and it was perverted by Clintonista male haters. Seems to happen to all our laws when a Dem is elected POTUS.

CH-- my senior year we had a volunteer receivers coach who graduated Maryland about '76-77. He was a wideout and going to medical school. I was shocked how big and fast he was. The was a huge gap, a Grand Canyon gap, between 1970s DivI and III football.

I'm on a business trip. Landed in Chicago earlier. I figured I'd grab some lunch at the airport before hitting the cab to the hotel. Walking down the concourse, there's a girl who's just getting through security talking on a cell phone.

It takes me a few seconds, but turns out it's one of mrs hit and run's best friends from high school. Don't tell the others, but she was always my favorite.

Alas, I didn't get to say hi. By the time my brain flipped on a figured out who it was, a great distance separated us, and she was gone.

Gone. She was gone.

Fun Fact: In 2008, the night Clarice hosted me for dinner, I spent a couple hours having a couple of beers with this friend and her husband beforehand . . . turns out they live barely a mile from Clarice.

I'm sure that's correct, NK. Usually there are extenuating circumstances on why a Div 3 athlete becomes a phenom like being a late bloomer. Not sure what the situation was for Fletcher except he was very much undersized considering his very long and good NFL career at linebacker. A guy I play basketball with goes to the same church as Fletcher's mother and has seen him and told me I wouldn't believe how short he is.

I'd argue that Abortion Barbie's 41% support level among women (37% overall) is of greater import than stunned Gullibles staggering over to Independent status until the marks left by the frozen flounder of reality heal. They might cast a dope vote for Rand Paul (L, Area 51), but I can't quite see them on the Wild for Walker team nor can I see them showing enthusiasm should our Top Men succeed in ramming another Sir Goldilocks down our throats.

It's going to take a few more cycles to actually break the peck and drool conditioning.

According to Obama's views on success, Hank Aaron has been "lucky." Ex-marine Steven Anthony who became a victim of government overreach was not.

In 1963, a group of motion picture industry heavyweights headed by Sol Lesser, Gregory Peck, Mary Pickford and Walt Disney, decided to create a museum showcasing the history of movies, radio and television to be located across the street from the Hollywood Bowl. The land at Alta Loma Terrace and Fairfield Avenue was already a developed lot with quaint "storybook cottage" style houses dotting the hillside, but the powerful museum committee still managed to convince the County to use eminent domain to force the homeowners out and bulldoze the area. All but one accepted the low-ball settlement offers. Bartender and former marine Steven Anthony lived with his wife and three children at 6655 Alta Loma Terrace, and he wasn't buying the line that a museum celebrating the entertainment industry was an essential and necessary service to the community. Brandishing a shotgun, he kept the sherrif's deputies at bay for several weeks amidst the rubble of his neighbors' homes. Finally on April 13, 1964, as a last ditch ruse to get Anthony out, undercover sheriff's deputies, posing as fellow marines sympathetic to his cause, gained entry into the house and immediately arrested Anthony on an 8 year-old traffic warrant. Moments later, deputies lying in wait swarmed the house and removed its contents. Anthony returned the next morning out on bail just in time to watch his house being torn down. As for the "essential and necessary" Hollywood Museum, mismanagement of funds, lack of organization and internal squabbling caused the project to be abandoned, and the site that was once a picturesque hillside community became what the county supervisors actually wanted all along: increased parking space for the Hollywood Bowl.

Chavez Ravine...
Suzette Kelo...
Any wonder that people distrust the government?

Many smaller schools, to get around title IX, recruit excellent athletes in a chosen sport, say softball and use the same athletes to fill out their women's golf team. Don't know how this counts as two athletic spots, but why would they bother to fill out a women's golf team with the softball team if there wasn't an advantage to do so considering travel costs and such.

Really pissed me off when K would go to a college tournament and the pairings were:

My guess on the women's golf team, given I know a girl who plays for Oklahoma, is that a hell of a lot of scholarships go wanting, since there is really a dearth of females with clubs, let alone competent golfers. Now Oklahoma has a fine one, and she would kick my @ss without breaking a sweat but when my son was playing D1 the women golfers were terrible at his school, and some female golf scholarships just go unclaimed. I am sure they tried, could not find even bad golfers.

Not the case anymore, gmax. There are so many girls in the 13-14 age range shooting scratch golf, there is a stiff competition for d1 schools. If you can't shoot 75 you can't get into d1 and most would take a scholarship to any of them. d2 is low 80s and d3 is mid 80s. They are importing them from overseas in droves, too. One of the top women's golf schools in Florida is primarily Scandinavian and it's not from lack of applicants here.

Most golfers in our county shoot low enough to make at minimum a d3 and I know several that have been turned down by schools with cross over "golfers."

Could be they are combining the golf and softball or whatever scholarships to provide a 100% ride, but that still shows where the priority lies. Filling numbers not educating as many female athletes as possible.

And it's not just golf that is suffering from cross athlete bs. Volleyball, Lacross, and several other sports are being cross populated by athletes. I just used golf as that is the sport I was most familiar with due to Ks stint on a 90% ride at a school that didn't employ that tactic and was starting a new golf team.

The problem with African Americans and baseball is related to income but not because higher income families can afford to send their boys to college and play baseball while picking up some of the costs.

Low income families cannot afford to sign their kids up for the local high level baseball leagues starting when the kids are as young 6-7 years old. This involves costs of several hundred a year not including travel. A kid has to play in the best leagues and travel to tournaments many weekends which is also expensive for families. If they don't play in these leagues and on these teams then they don't make their high school team unless its the inner city team that loses every game by run rule. Kids n those teams don't get recruited for college programs. The proof of this is the lack of black kids participating in high school baseball. They have been eliminated from the best levels of baseball competition many years prior to HS. You don't see large number of black baseball players in high school suddenly disappearing from the sport because of the scholarship limitations at the college level.